If you are ordering keys and upvc door locks on the internet should you be concerned about who is cutting keys for them? Well you should be!

The question here is would you give your front door key to a complete stranger? You wouldn’t unless you were certain of who you were dealing with! 

 

Yale Superior Series Keys

Typical Keys and bar code for a Yale Superior Series Lock.

The internet has thrown up a plethora of companies selling door locks and key cutting services and this is increasing all the time – keys by post well who would have thought it! So you order a lock from an internet site and have a few extra keys cut to go with it so what happens next? Well a lot of things could happen if in the wrong hands and it could be a real problem that many people don’t even think of. So what do you look for? Good practice on the part of the key cutter and the company should follow strict inhouse guidelines:

  • Key cutter personnel should never see the address information for the customer’s order.
  • Pin numbers should never be written down or passed between two people in the organisation.
  • Key blanks should be issued by higher management to the key cutter and should be exactly the number required for the order. If blanks are damaged or are required to be replaced during the cutting process then these must be given back to the controller and accounted for. That way no one can cut extra keys.
  • If a customer reports keys are missing from the order the whole order must be returned and the key number changed.
  • Customers ordering extra keys with orders or separate additional keys via a website must provide a picture of the key card details and the key itself. Professional key cutters can read the numbers from the pattern and this way we can ensure it is the correct customer providing the key.

In a move to try and position itself at the higher end of the market the answer for the management team at HandleStore was to get away from anything dubbed standard and invest in better upvc locks and key systems that are difficult to replicate. Back in 2012 HandleStore made the move to a more complex type of euro lock the Yale Superior Series Lock and this came with its own security key and security card. Basically the card has to be kept safe and is just as important as the key and if you want to order keys you have to present the card. In the case of an internet order a picture must be sent of the key card. Getting away from the standard meant investing in a state of the art dimple and trace key cutter and this was no less than £20 000, putting it beyond the many. This coupled with its in-house policy gives customers peace of mind that duplication of keys cannot be achieved by any means during the process of ordering. So when ordering upvc locks with keys you know what to check and what to ask!

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